Many US Jewish Adults Report Assault or Harassment, and Most Feel Less Safe Since Oct. 7

Hal Guberman, a 30-year-old in New Jersey, still wears his kippah, but he does it with some trepidation. Last year a stranger in a passing car shouted a slur at him as he walked down the street. "They saw me being visibly Jewish," he said, "and they made an opinion about me." His experience sits inside a larger picture drawn by a new AP-NORC poll on how Jewish adults in the United States feel about their safety.

The survey, from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that a majority of Jewish adults feel less safe than they did before Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. About 6 in 10 said so, including about 7 in 10 of those who are religiously Jewish. About a third said they feel about as safe as before, and very few said they feel safer. The poll was conducted June 11-17 among 3,040 adults, including 1,022 Jewish adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.0 percentage points for the Jewish sample.

The results arrive as the war in Gaza has prompted protests in the U.S. over Israel's military actions, as bipartisan support for Israel erodes, and as attacks on Jewish communities have increased. About 3 in 10 Jewish adults said they or someone in their household had experienced physical assault, verbal abuse, online harassment or property damage over the past year because of their Jewish background. About 1 in 10 reported a physical assault, and a similar share reported property damaged or destroyed. About 2 in 10 reported being called a slur, threatened or verbally harassed, and about 2 in 10 reported online harassment or cyberbullying.

The numbers are higher among those who attend religious services at least monthly. Slightly less than half of frequent attenders said someone in their household faced verbal harassment, a similar share reported online harassment, and about a quarter had dealt with physical attacks or property damage. The finding comes after several targeted attacks on Jewish religious spaces in recent years. Jon Kessler, 38, of California, said non-Jews may not grasp how much security figures into Jewish life. Most churchgoers don't have armed security, he said, but every synagogue does, and so does his son's Jewish daycare.

About 6 in 10 Jewish adults called prejudice against Jews an extremely or very serious problem, a view stronger among those emotionally attached to Israel. On personal safety, opinion split three ways: about a third feel very or somewhat safe, about a third very or somewhat unsafe, and the rest neither. Those with close ties to Israel, or who identify as Jewish by religion, were more likely to feel threatened.

Some have changed how they present themselves. About 4 in 10 said they are less likely to wear, carry or display things that identify them as Jewish; about half said they are as likely as before and about 1 in 10 said more likely. Caitlin Rosendorn, 24, of Illinois, used to wear a Star of David necklace. She worries a coworker might read it as a symbol of Israel rather than of Judaism and assume she supports its attacks on Palestinians. Erin Baskin, 36, of Pennsylvania, said Oct. 7 changed nothing for her, because she grew up with antisemitism and lives in a rural community that conflates Judaism with Zionism. Amanda Goldsmith, 53, of Chicago, said people now say horrible things about Jews online with a freedom she once associated only with extremist spaces.

Jewish adults are divided on whether protest is itself antisemitic. About half said anti-Israel protests are not a form of antisemitism, while roughly 4 in 10 said they are. About two-thirds said criticizing Israel's military actions is not antisemitic, though those closely attached to Israel were more likely to say it is. Few said criticism of Israel for any reason is antisemitic. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas and does not separate civilian from militant deaths, says more than 73,000 Palestinians have died since Israel retaliated.

There was broad agreement on other acts. The overwhelming majority of Jewish adults called antisemitic the vandalizing of synagogues or Jewish-owned businesses over Israel's actions, Holocaust denial, blaming American Jews for Israel's actions, saying Israel shouldn't exist as a Jewish state, and claiming American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the U.S. Non-Jewish adults were less settled, with many saying they weren't sure. That gap in certainty, along with the split inside the Jewish community, is likely to shape debates over protests on campuses and in public.